Parental Responsibility
Parental Responsibility is the responsibility for children and not over children. It is defined in the Children Act 1989 as “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property”.It includes the right to decide where a child lives, the make important decisions in a child’s life such as education, religion, and medical care. As well as day to day decisions about nutrition, recreation, etc. Married parents have joint parental responsibility.
If parents are unmarried, only the mother has parental responsibility.
An unmarried father can acquire parental responsibility in a number of ways: by being named as the child’s father on the birth certificate if the child was born after 1 December 2003 at registration or re-registration, entering into a parental responsibility agreement with the mother, by applying for and obtaining a parental responsibility order and/or residence order through the courts or being appointed the child’s guardian by the court or by the mother or other guardian.
A parent loses parental responsibility on the parent’s death or the child’s adoption.
Other people can also acquire parental responsibility via different ways.
For further advice on this issue please do not hesitate to contact our Family Department Judi Bonham, Beth Evans, Fiona Thornton.